Why I’m in Nashville while the Sharks are playing in Chicago

NASHVILLE — Anybody who follows me on Twitter shouldn’t be wondering about the dateline and the timing of this post — between periods as the Sharks hold a 1-0 lead over the Chicago Blackhawks.

For everybody else, here’s the short version: Flight from Denver canceled this morning, long standby lines for a later flight and rather than risk getting stranded a full day or longer in Denver, I grabbed the one remaining seat on a flight to Nashville, where the Sharks play Tuesday night. On short notice, the Merc found a back-up beat guy in the Chicago area so at least our coverage will be Sharks-driven.

After seven years of chasing a hockey team across North America in the dead of winter, I’ve failed to get to my destination for the first time. Not happy about that, but resigned to my fate hours ago.

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Decided to weigh in now just to bring everybody up to date and seriously diminish expectations of any post-game posting tonight from Chicago. That won’t be happening.

So here I sit in the hotel room, watching the game on NBCSports and picking up a lot of Sharks love from the national crew. The only complaint I’ve got at the moment is that while the 49ers game was in beautiful HD on my nice flat-screen TV, hockey isn’t.

Oh well. I’ll survive.

Sharks have one of their CBA-protected days off Monday here in Nashville and that means no required media access. That’s a potential problem for me, but hoping the team and i can work something out without my being too intrusive.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

Likely it was Mr. We know he has some family connection to the skating move. He probably just didn’t say it right. (and the stain would never know the difference) Just like I know he knows a lot about hockey. I just wish he could tell us what he knows. “No doubt Brodie!”

SactoShark

DP,

Holy crap!

JUst happened to go by the Sharks page in the Merc this morning, for the first time in months, and low and behold found that it had been updated to include many of the suggestions on this blog. Standings, upcoming games, team stats, relevent BR content, etc~! Well done!

MLBSF

And all for free. Free for all you freeloaders who refuse to pay and even threatened to leave the site. Right SactoShark?smh

Stevo

Yeah GP, it was the mistake(s) made after CHI tied it up. They were running around like they did in COL when Boyle didn’t see Pickles 8 feet away and tried to pass through him.

All a team has to do to fluster the boys is play physical (CHI does not) or play tenacious man-on-man (close vs zone) coverage. If you will.

It happens (heh,heh) with Sharks hockey this season.

BTW, last season vs Kings R2… the boys played pretty well. I imagine, when the time comes, they will do the same. So I’m not worried. It was just that I’m disappointed with that pattern of play.

Alex

Why would I care about that?

Stevo

True, but Marleau played a very very good 2-way game last night. One of his best this season IMO.

LTNC

Welcome back.
The “Original Six” stuff gets old, and I say that in spite of deep original six roots. It’s as irrelevant as France claiming special greatness because of the Second Empire.

Stevo

Well Tom, that makes about 3 people that can see through The Nasty Itch/Stain.

Wish everyone else would see that obvious conclusion too. The Stain is catchin’ a ton of fish here.

Sheeesh.

GP_hockeyhappens

Alex, first, we all want the same thing here. intelligent hockey discussion. This troll supplies none and never gets close. It really does get bothersome and/or annoying. So, Do the progression. Responding to the troll

Clemenza

Give it a rest.

Stevo

Nice post LTNC. (incl the welcome back to Tom in the Q)

If he were still with us, I’d swear you are really Don Raleigh.

Although he was certainly no “freight train”…

GP_hockeyhappens

It is what I refer to when we no one responded directly. It doesn’t stop regardless.

All that said, I appreciate your own discipline.

MLBSF

Not your guys’ best moment is it? All your whining and crying about potentially having to pay for digital content. And then going on and on with your tearful goodbyes and such. Pretty embarrassing to say the least. smh

Agree about the O-6 stuff. Stevo, Don Raleigh? Had to Google that one.

But the Second Empire? According to Victor Hugo, if it hadn’t been for the rain that slowed down Bonaparte’s artillery, we’d all be speaking French, not just the Quebecois.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Buddy, I’m not going to go back and look for it, but I believe he even wrote it as a past-tense…done deal.

Clemenza

You’ve got nothing at this point, do you? The sharks beat the hawks & you blow a gasket. LOL

BTW, thanks for confirming that your existence on this planet is so incredibly miserable that you have to continue to try & bait & antagonize people on this & other message boards…

I feel really sorry that your parents didn’t tell you they cared or took an interest in your bug collection when you were young.

They totally scarred you for life didn’t they?

#someoneneedsahug

Back to the ‘minimize’ button.

Buddy Elf

I ended up finding it… thanks!

Buddy Elf

I forgot… how much do you pay DP weekly?

Buddy Elf

Stain… check.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

My take on this is that if you are down 2 or 3 in the 3rd period and you get a pp, it’s a risk you could consider taking.

If I were in the #9 spot late in the season, I’d do this. You have nothing to lose. But as a general rule of thumb? No.

Then there’s the 5 on 3. Why not 6 on 3?

Further on this, it would also have to be something you’d practice. Someone has to play deep safety. 6 on 4 gives you an illusion of invulnerability.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

And DP, since you can drop a literary reference now and then, this is from the NY Times, which I purloined as an appreciation of your efforts here:

As John Cheever put it: “I can’t write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss — you can’t do it alone.”

Stevo

“Nothing to lose”.. I agree that that was ZEKE’s premise.

GP_hockeyhappens

Yep, it will happen especially against good/equal teams.

I was surprised, The second period stats had the Sharks way ahead in HITS.

MLBSF

Well it looks like the Sharks are in a free fall in the ESPN Power Rankings. Dropped another two slots to #7 even after beating Chicago in a shootout. smh

“Interesting that it was Alex Stalock between the pipes in place of Antti Niemi in Sunday’s shootout win over Chicago. The Sharks have won six of eight, four of those wins coming via the shootout.” http://espn.go.com/nhl/powerrankings

When will the free fall end?!?!

Tom (fm Quinzee)

Wish it were checkmate.

GP_hockeyhappens

ZEKE also suggested it could be done in the middle of the game. That is where the risk rational falls apart.

ZEKE

To me, the argument against is funny. Its a roll of the numbers — though one number is not well know (scoring % 6 on 4). Phat Stat did one key look — 150 games with a team down 2 with 10 minutes to go. 5 wins. 97% chance they lose. Down 1 at the 10 minute mark, they win 20% of the time. You can dramatically increase your odds of winning if you score a goal. You can’t significantly decrease your odds of winning because its only 3%.

Perhaps I’m the only one who looks at a 97% chance of a loss and looks for a way to improve that.

ZEKE

correct. Down 2 with 10 minutes to go = 97% chance of a loss = not much to lose. Down 1 = 80% chance of a loss, a considerable improvement. Numbers courtesy of Phat Stat.

ZEKE

Down 2, on a PP with 10 minutes or less to go. Is that ‘middle of the game’?

For me, its actually kind of simple. If your odds of winning improve, you do it. The odds change as the remaining time gets shorter.

One stat you often see — team records when leading (or trailing) going into the 3rd period. Very high % that the game ends with the result that started the 3rd period. Wasn’t CHI something like 22-0-1 when leading after 2 periods? Its not exactly the same thing as ‘down 2 with 10 minutes to go’, but it does show how hard it is to overcome a deficit, even with 20 minutes of time left.

GP_hockeyhappens

IMO, one of the best hockey games of the season, and one the Sharks better hockey games. The noticable(sp) thing to me was that the Hawks did not dominate the game. There was back and forth, one team causing mistakes and turnovers, etc. Much of which Joe Q will be somewhat concerned about — IMO.

GP_hockeyhappens

ZEKE, I may remember wrong, but when you first proposed this, I thought you mentioned the second period. if you did, you’ve moved the timeline to a more reasonable argument. Apologies if I remember incorrectly.

Stevo

Yeah, I never expected the Sharks to be able to compete, given our roster situation.

I think Nemo is fighting a nagging minor injury or just in a funk, so it was smart of Mick to put Stalock in.

5-man D and 5-man O are required to win the Cup. I hope this game’s lessons are not lost on the team going forward.

They even regained their composure in the end

Stevo

BOOOOM!! goes the dynamite

heh,heh…

Stevo

With all due respect… you’re almost in the net

Stevo

With all due respect… he’s about ready to gaff you

Stevo

Another WTC renaissance man

Nice.

renoshark

I don’t think most NHL coaches would be willing, or want to risk, going down 3 with 9:30 left, after giving up an empty-netter, and all but guarantee 100% chance of a loss. If I have to chase points at the end of the season it would be a gamble I might take but otherwise probably not.

Buddy Elf

LOL… of course when they were on top of the rankings for weeks, you never mentioned the ESPN power rankings.

Sharks win despite a zero percent chance and you lose it.

This is hilarious.

Stevo

I agree.. with both of you. It’s quite a conundrum.

But… if a coach started getting come from behind victories by going 6-on-4 with less than 10mins remaining (and their team playing like garbage), I’d bet other coaches would copycat that concept.

After all, this is a copycat League.

Clemenza

Thus the ‘minimize’ disclaimer, bro!

J B

Buddy, someone may be working hard to draw attention away from saying earlier:
“Yet another loss in Chicago, just as I (the truth-teller) predicted.”

Understandable because it’s very embarrassing, believe you me.

GP_hockeyhappens

I think only DP is the chess master in this game.

Buddy Elf

Complete with the 1 Guest Vote…

Gotta love it.

renoshark

This team’s identity changed after that bad 2nd period and near comeback against Colorado. We’re skating faster, working harder and playing with a sense of purpose. It carried over to Chicago. Hope it continues in Nashville but there were clearly two different Sharks teams on that ice at the Pepsi Center.

Alex

… Succeeded in his mission to get people to respond to his drivel… check, check, check.

Alex

Thing is, you and all the others who continue to respond can easily checkmate him. You just don’t want to.

Stevo

You know I’m on your side Clemenza, but it would be best for all of us to simply ignore him.

It really would. And we all could.

I love the bombs you guys drop on him as much as the next guy, and Lord knows I did that in spades when he first infected WTC, but frankly, I like WTC much more when we just leave him to stew in silence.

Seriously.

Tom (fm Quinzee)

You’re right. But sometimes … ah, screw it.

GP_hockeyhappens

I have not seen the COL game yet, surprisingly. Travel can get in the way on occasion. I did read the postmortems though.